Open Borders or a First World Fortress?

[From Asylum! A Socialist View of the Refugee Crisis (2022).]

The spectacular August 2021 collapse of the Western puppet government in Afghanistan in the face of the Taliban offensive generated a new wave of people seeking asylum.

Prime Minister Scott Morison made it clear that only Afghans who came through “official channels” would be resettled in Australia. If you come by boat forget it — apparently, making the slightest concession to “boat people” would open the floodgates to the dreaded people smugglers. And none of the 4200 Afghans already here on temporary visas would be permanently settled. Then Defence Minister Peter Dutton weighed in, claiming that some Afghan asylum-seekers could be terrorists or pose a threat to Australia.

Introduction to Asylum!

[Introduction to the pamphlet Asylum! A Socialist View of the Refugee Crisis (2022).]

Our world is in chaos. Within countries and between countries, tens of millions of people in the Third World are on the move — they are fleeing war, oppression, gang violence, grinding poverty and escalating climate change. They are desperately looking for a way out.

And now the Russian invasion of Ukraine has produced a fresh crop of refugees. Being forced to leave your home and seek safety in another country will always be traumatic but for various reasons the Ukrainian refugees are generally being treated differently to those from the Third World.

As climate change bites deeper and deeper, the refugee crisis is only going to get radically worse. Whole regions of the world are on the cusp of becoming uninhabitable. This will result in very large-scale population displacement.

Hard rubbish collection: Endpoint of consumerism

The Melbourne suburb of Brunswick where I live is a long way from flood-ravaged Lismore and we’ve suffered no climate disaster but in some streets there is definitely a resemblance at the moment.

It's the biannual municipal hard rubbish collection!

I don’t know what it’s like in wealthy Toorak, but here it’s always a source of great local interest and amazement. This time there seems to be a lot more stuff and, along with the usual crap, some of it looks to be very good quality.

‘National security’ or protect people here and now?

As the lives of residents along Australia’s east coast were smashed by unprecedented floods, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was talking up “national security”. The Coalition government has committed to spending hundreds of billions of dollars on beefing up our armed forces.

“Our world is becoming increasingly uncertain, so it’s important we take steps now to protect our people and our national interest over the coming decades”, Morrison said in a March 10 speech. The website of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet claims that “National security is all about keeping Australians safe and secure.”

Actually, it’s not. It's about the interests of the tiny capitalist class who rule the country. When the code phrases of "national security" and "national interest" are trotted out we are all meant to stand to attention and salute the flag. They are meant to trump all other concerns that people may have. Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party leaders certainly understand it that way. Albanese's pathetic response to the Coalition's war drive is to claim that Labor will actually deliver the weapons systems that Morrison has merely promised.